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Words matter! Know the meanings of the words you speak, write, preach and teach to perfectly accomplish the things the LORD God wills.

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CHRISTOLOGY (CHRIST)

Apostle

An ambassador of the Gospel that spreads His Word as commissioned by Jesus Christ.

Entry link: Apostle

Arianism

The name given to the heresy of Arius (see Arius); believers in this heresy were subjected to great persecutions by fellow Christians, and the heretical belief died with them. The death toll of Arians killed by fellow Christians was far greater than the number of Christian victims of Roman persecution.1

1 Perry, Marvin, et al. "The Young Church." Western Civilization: Ideas, Politics, and Society, Eighth Edition. Houghton Mifflin Company, 2007, 182.
Entry link: Arianism

Arius

A Greek priest in Alexandria and leader of a faction that denied the complete divinity of Jesus Christ. He believed that Jesus Christ was more than man and less than God and that the Father and the Son did not possess the same nature or essence, with no permanent union between Them; the Father alone is eternal and truly God. The resulting controversy concerning these arguments resulted in the assembly of the Council of Nicaea (A.D. 325), the first ecumenical council with bishops from all parts of the Roman world. The council condemned Arius and ruled that God and Christ were of the same substance, coequal and coeternal; their position was expressed in the "Nicene Creed," which continues to be an official stance of most Christian churches.
Entry link: Arius

Evangelical

A focus on the authority of the four Gospels with emphasis on salvation by faith in the atoning death of Jesus Christ through personal conversion, and the spreading of this message throughout the world, according to the Great Commission of Jesus Christ.
Entry link: Evangelical

Faith

The condition of believing and trusting in a perceived truth. Christian faith is the substance of things hoped for, and the evidence of things not seen, through the promise of eternal life through Jesus Christ (Hebrews 11).
Entry link: Faith

Homoeans

Belief that the Son is like the Father.1

Also see Homoousians, Homoiousians, and Anomoeans.

1Ferguson, Everett. Church History Volume One: From Christ to Pre-Reformation. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2005, 201.

Entry link: Homoeans

Homoiousians

Belief that the Son is of similar substance to the Father.1

Also see Homoousians, Homoeans, and Anomoeans.

1Ferguson, Everett. Church History Volume One: From Christ to Pre-Reformation. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2005, 201.

Entry link: Homoiousians

Homoousians

Belief that the Son is the same substance with the Father.1

Also see Homoiousians, Homoeans, and Anomoeans.

1Ferguson, Everett. Church History Volume One: From Christ to Pre-Reformation. Grand Rapids, MI: Zondervan, 2005, 201.

Entry link: Homoousians

Hypostatic Union

The view that the Holy Spirit simultaneously brought into being a human nature and substantially united it to the person of the Son so that the Son actually came to exist as man, with both natures of both God and human combined into one. Cyril of Alexandria (AD 376-444) formulated this description to defend the one nature of Christ. It is this idea that is represented by the Catholic Church as Mary being the "Mother of God" in their belief.

Cyril's opponent in belief was Nestorius, who taught that Christ had two natures. Later on, Eutyches took Cyril's teaching to extremes and not only denied the dual nature of Christ, but argued also that the single nature of Jesus was purely divine. Flavian, patriarch of Constantinople condemned Eutyches, and Leo, bishop of Rome got into the fray with a famous letter known as the Tome. Leo taught that even after the incarnation, Christ retains two natures, but he remains a single person that is identical with the second Person of the Trinity. Thus, Christ had two natures while he remained a single person, a middle way approach that rejected the extremes of both ends.

The Creed of Chalcedon, a supposed elucidation of the Creed of Nicaea, agreed with Cyril that Christ was one person, identical with the pre-existent Son, but it also agreed with Leo that after the incarnation he possessed two distinct natures, one human and one divine.

The Nicene Creed expresses the belief of most Christians today (Hill, 97-99).

Bibliography

Hill, Jonathan. "Early Christianity: A World Religion." Handbook to the History of Christianity. Zondervan, 2006.
Entry link: Hypostatic Union

Jesus Christ

Jesus Christ is the eternal Son of God who was expressed by His Word and begotten before the creation of the World. In His incarnation as Jesus Christ He was conceived of the Holy Spirit and born of the Virgin Mary and walked this earth in human form with the nature of man from 4 B.C. - c. A.D. 29. Jesus perfectly revealed and did the Will of God, taking upon Himself common human nature but without sin. He honored the LORD God's divine law by His personal obedience, and in His substitutionary death on the cross, He became the redeemer of of men from their sin. He was raised from the dead with a glorified body through his Resurrection and appeared to His disciples and others. He ascended into Heaven and is now seated at the right hand of God, with the nature of God within him. He is the One Mediator which effects the reconciliation between the LORD God and His people. He will return in power and glory to judge the world and to usher in a new life to come in the Kingdom of God with a new Heaven and Earth.
Entry link: Jesus Christ


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